Chapter 3

Two weeks. A fortnight of lazing around the hotel, sleeping till midday; slowly poisoning himself with booze, a different stranger in his bed every night, and he still can’t get her out of his head. Two weeks since he kicked that woman in the red dress out.

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“You have to get who?” His latest escapade gazes up at him, but Sehun isn’t listening. He sits up quickly, and his new friend pulls the blankets up to cover her ness. Thoughts were churning around his head, ‘I’ll just sleep with her,’ he reasons, ‘I’ll get pretty sick of her after that, I mean, how different could she be to anyone else?’ The woman in his bed watches in surprise and confusion as Sehun jumps out of bed, pulling his boxers back on. He swipes up her dress and bra, tossed into the corner of the room, forgotten in the heat of the moment, and stuffs it into her arms.

“Get dressed, you need to leave now.” His tone is abrupt and humourless, and she’s shocked at his rudeness. “Aren’t you at least going to have some champagne with me first?” She attempts to flirt with him, tempting him back into bed, but he ignores her, already planning his attack. Sehun barely notices, or cares, as the woman he’d been so intimate with a moment ago, pulls her clothes back on and leaves in a huff, slamming the door behind her. She grabs the bottle of Dom on her way to the elevator, shocking the confused waiter on his way to deliver it to what would be a less-than-pleased son of the hotel owners. “Tell him he owed me one.” she spits out bitterly, aware that she looked like a disheveled e. She calls her cousin, who’s fast asleep and about to receive a houseguest courtesy of Oh Sehun.

“Hello?” A sleepy voice answers, deeper than the one she was expecting.

“Mark, put my cousin on.”

The crunching noise of bed sheets being moved around fills the receiver, followed by a faint, “It’s your cousin, tell her it’s 3am.” The phone changes hands, and more crunching is heard as Mark settles back down, unconscious again within the minute.

“I-”

“I’m coming to your place tonight, and I’m bringing champagne.” She cuts her semi-conscious cousin off.

“You know I don’t drink, Ri.”

“Well then I’ll drink for the both of us. Some a-hole picked me up at the Skyview bar, then kicked me out. I’m on my way. K, bye.” She hangs up before the sleepy couple can protest and hails a taxi.

*          *          *

Sehun climbs out of bed on time for the first time in his life, his ears still ringing from the 10 alarms he set. He pulls on a pair of coloured jeans, and a loose white t-shirt; one that had a slightly-deeper-than-necessary v-neck cut. A casual blazer and pair of sandals were picked randomly off the pile on his bed, and Sehun stood in front of the mirror, satisfied that he looked heartbreakingly model-like. He makes sure to leave instructions for housekeeping at the reception desk and orders another bottle of champagne for the evening before sauntering out to his car. ‘If they’re going to exile me, I may as well have some fun with it.’ he smirks.

30 minutes later, Sehun’s striding through the doors of his first proper psychology lecture, coffees in hand, eyes searching for any sign of that girl. He spots her, sitting in the 3^rd row chatting amiably to some other students in the row above. Determined, he jumps down the steps with suave, earning himself some interested looks from a few girls seated halfway down, before sliding into the seat beside his target, coffee held out in front of her. She looks at him weirdly, wondering what on earth this random guy is doing. “I think you must have me mixed up with someone else…” she begins, hesitantly pushing away the coffee that Sehun was now nodding towards. “I don’t know you…”

Sehun rolls his eyes in disbelief that she was trying to play innocent. “Yeah you do.” he says with a smirk. “You called me an idiot at orientation, then told me off for being ungrateful for the privileges I have.” He frowns slightly, surprised at himself for remembering the details from an encounter with some random girl who wasn’t even nice to him. She gives him another weird look before turning away slowly. “At least tell me your name?” he asks, desperate, now that his suave plan didn’t work. “I’m Sehun, since you’ve obviously forgotten.” He looks for a tell tale sign of recognition at his name, but nothing appears. “Michelle.” she replies, before turning away, indicating to Sehun that the conversation is now over. He frowns to himself, disappointed, sipping the now-cold coffee as the lecture starts.